8th/9th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment

The 8th/9th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, is an infantry battalion of the Australian Army.

8th/9th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (8/9 RAR), was originally formed in 1973 by linking together both the 8th and 9th Battalions of the Royal Australian Regiment.

Over the next 24 years, 8/9 RAR remained on the Australian order of battle, based at Enoggera Barracks in Brisbane, Queensland, until it was disbanded in 1997 amid a number of Defence-wide cutbacks introduced by the Howard government.

In 2006, it was announced that 8/9 RAR would be re-raised as part of a plan to expand the size of the Army. Since then it has established itself as a fully deployable infantry battalion as part of 7th Brigade.

8/9 RAR has since contributed personnel on operations to Timor-Leste (East Timor), Afghanistan, Solomon Islands, as well as civil community operations such as Pakistan Assist and the 2010-11 Queensland floods.

The 8th/9th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, motto is ‘Duty first’.